Pretty Little Liars Season 4 Spoilers: Spencer’s Dad Is Back in Winter Premiere!

With Mike Montgomery back on our screens, we’ve started to notice the long-time absences of other Pretty Little Liarscharacters, namely Peter Hastings (Nolan North). We haven’t seen Spencer’s dad in forever. Well, it turns out he’ll be back soon — much to Toby’s chagrin.

Keegan Allen (Toby) posted a gorgeous photograph(seriously, he’s uber talented) of Nolan North hanging out on the Hastings’ kitchen set yesterday on Twitter: “So Nolan_north kicks ass in video games. But as Spencer's dad -he always shows up at the wrong time…” tweetedKeegan.

PLL is still filming Season 4, Episode 14: “Who’s in the Box,” so Papa Hastings will make his return in the winter premiere. And, apparently, it will spell trouble for Spoby (good thing the Spoby bear will be around to off-set Papa Hastings’ efforts). “Spencer's parents are such clock blocks,” Keegan said in his Instagram post of the pic. We think he was going for “cock blocks,” but you never know! Maybe he is dropping a clever, temporal-related clue.

We were immediately struck by the brilliance of Keegan’s pic, which shows Nolan leaning against the kitchen counter with his suit jacket slung over his arm and his eyes fixed on the camera while the crew (including actor/director Chad Lowe) works behind, but we were also impressed with Nolan’s stare. We forgot how intimidating Nolan could be as Mr. Hastings, and we’re eager to know what he is doing back on the show. How did he react to Spencer’s flummoxed college plans? Or Spencer’s mental breakdown, for that matter? Spencer’s relationship with her dad is super tense and interesting. We can’t wait to see how and if their dynamic has changed.

Why do you think Peter Hastings is back on PLL? Does this spell trouble for Spoby? Sound off in the comments below!

Catch the next episode of Pretty Little Liars on Tuesday, July 30, 2013 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC Family.